Creative Loafing

July 26th, 1997

Red, white, and black 
Seeing "Red" and other COLORS at the Spartanburg Museum of Art

 

Across the hall in the Milliken Gallery, the black-and-white photography of Angelique Antoniou is on display. Inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson and Degas among others, the California native's exhibit "Dances and Journeys" primarily explores the diaphanous world of ballet. Antoniou has studied photography since the age of twelve, an age even younger than most of the slender girls in her prints. While ballet may be her forte, the other photos in Antoniou's exhibit display more humanity. The print "Old Good-byes" depics two elderly women embracing a brief kiss before parting. Her hair pulled back severely, the woman in "Unaware Beauty", tenderly strokes her cat's soft underside, cat and owner lovingly illunminated by the strong white light from the window behind them. "Woman and Cat in Black" tells a short, sad beautiful story as an old balding woman sits on a concrete step and waits. Another elderly woman waits in "Waiting 3". She waits in a chair beside a mannequin in a fashionable store, obviously out of her element. These prints may be fewer in number, but they are peopled by characters with greater staying power than the ethereal figures that slip through Antoniou's dance photographs. All her photos are presented as gelatin silver prints.

 

-Robert A. Stribley